HOUSING design mistakes made 40 years ago are proving costly for Birmingham City Council.

HOUSING design mistakes made 40 years ago are proving costly for Birmingham City Council.

The local authority will pay £2.3 million to demolish two tower blocks on the Bromford estate in Ward End.

The unmodernised 20-storey towers, built in 1967, are plagued by vandalism and difficult to let.

But the council has decided it would be cheaper to knock the flats down than attempt a modernisation programme.

It would cost £5.7 million to put Stoneycroft Tower and Bayley Tower in a fit state for ten years and £10 million to give them a 30-year life.

The demolition scheme is part of a multi-million pound, five-year clearance programme that will see many 1960s Birmingham tower blocks razed to the ground.

A council spokeswoman was unable to say how much the clearance programme would cost.

Elaine Elkington, director of housing, said the clearance of the blocks would enable the Bromford estate to be redesigned through the provision of new homes, a health centre and play and community facilities.

Stoneycroft and Bayley towers, containing 231 one and two-bedroom flats, were built using the No Fines construction method - a process now generally discredited throughout the building industry.

Both blocks have a vacancy rate of about 30 per cent.

Ms Elkington said: "The flats are in poor condition and residents report increased levels of anti-social behaviour and substance misuse. Levels of turnover are high."

A report to the council cabinet warned: "The reputation of the flats is poor and issues of security and crime are becoming heightened."

Residents in the two towers overwhelmingly backed the council plan, with almost 90 per cent supporting demolition.